This blog Haiti Solutions supports the growth of political and economic freedom, good governance and human rights in Haiti by educating Haitian citizens, parties and governments on the values and practices of democracy.

It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light

Mwen se echantiyon yon ras kap boujonnen men ki poko donnen

Si vous voulez vous faire des ennemis essayer de changer les choses

Thursday, April 14, 2016

The Miami Herald
reported that Sir Ronald Sanders from OAS recommended that Interim
President Privert name a Presidential Electoral Verification Commission. That
would be a total violation of the February 5, 2016 Accord and the Haitian
Constitution. With this statement, Sanders is opening a Pandora’s box that
would open Haiti to total chaos and exacerbate the chronic political instability.
Why would the OAS propose such a violation of Haiti’s democratic process?

This seems to be the result of Privert’s lobbying to extend
his 120 days in office into a two-year transition. That would be a disaster and
all the political gains made over the years would be washout. Sanders’
statement reminded Haitians how the violations of the eight point agreement to
return to constitutional order between Aristide and National Security Advisor
Anthony Lake in November 2000 led to two years of violations of human rights,
political parties headquarters burning and chaos. It also reminded Haitians how
OAS Luigi Enaudi and Sandra Honore failed to uphold and defend democratic
principles when Aristide was killing his political opponents. Failure to defend
Haiti’s constitution and the February 5 Accord might lead to the same results. Will
OAS, Sir Ronald Sanders and Sandra Honore fail Haiti again?

After Haiti
came out of the Duvalier dictatorship, the framers of the constitution in 1987
wanted to ensure that none of the three branches of Government could interfere with
the elections. Particularly the Executive Branch which in Haiti’s recent past
used commissions as one of the tricks to change the voters’ choices and install
dictatorships. The framers created the electoral tribunal known as Provisional
Electoral Council (CEP) under Article 289 of the constitution. All matters
related to the elections, evaluations, verifications, contestations, and
publications of the results or any other electoral matters are legally under
the purview of one institution, the CEP. The framers went as far as not
allowing the Judiciary and any other Court to overrule the CEP decisions. When
Interim President Jocelerme Privert is trying to name a Presidential Electoral
Commission, known as the Verification Commission, he is interfering with the
letter and the spirit of Haiti’s constitution, and he is in the path of what
the framers forbid in order to prevent an electoral coup. If there is a need
for verification, there is only one place it can be done, with the new CEP.
Nowhere else.

If Privert moves forward with a Commission, it will create a
jurisprudence that will allow future interference of executive power in
elections results. It is worth noting that there are no calls to do the same
with the Legislative and Municipal election results. In these Legislative and
Municipal elections, the candidates followed the process, contested and respected
the outcomes. In the presidential elections, the candidates who lost the
elections did not follow the process and are no putting forward new rules. Why
should this be allowed? Is that the new door that Sanders is opening with the
Democratic Charter?

Now, it is time to stop the
shenanigans and implement the final chapter of the February 5 Accord. At least
most of the members of the Core Group, or the international community groups
tasked with supporting Haiti through this turbulent time, are standing for
elections and democracy. We should be mindful that Chapter V called for the
finalization of the presidential runoff, ensuring that a new constitutional
President take office on May 14, six days before the end of the mandate of the
interim President, and get Haiti back to stability.

13 fire fighters from Haiti led by Chief Ardouin Zephirin arrived in Rockville for two weeks of fire and rescue training at Montgomery County Fire Rescue Training Academy http://www.rockvilleliving.com/blog/entries/2009_05_firefighters_from_haiti

Stanley Lucas and Richard R. Bowers, Jr, Chief of the Montgomery County (MD) Fire and Rescue Service (MCFRS